The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has described the position of Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka on the Lagos-Ibadan train service as the biggest endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ongoing effort to develop as well as modernise the country’s railway system.
BMO said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke that in spite of their skewed misgivings, many government critics cannot run away from the infrastructural development the Buhari administration is deploying across the country.
“We invite Nigerians to note that Professor Soyinka is an acerbic critic of every single administration in the country who hardly has any good thing to say about any sitting or past government in Nigeria.
“He has also been in the news taking potshots at the Buhari administration, so for a serial harsh critic to have painted the picture of the Lagos-Ibadan train service the way he did, means that the President is doing far more than his traducers give him credit for.
“We consider the testimony by the Nobel Laureate in the viral interview with Kaftan TV as the biggest third party endorsement of what the government is doing and we make bold to say that it is worth more than what any government official could have said on the project.
“We invite anyone that is still in doubt of the importance of the ‘Buhari Train’ to note how Professor Soyinka explained how he has had to spend up to seven hours on the road from Abeokuta to Lagos, but did the same trip in 90minutes by ‘Buhari Train’.
“It is therefore not surprising that he was truthful enough to describe the service in a flowery term, even though he was quick to switch back to the usual Wole Soyinka mode when he said he would prefer to ‘forget the existence of the Buhari administration’ “, the group noted.
BMO wondered how the Nobel Laureate could conveniently brush aside the existence of the present government after taking a ride in the Lagos-Ibadan train and showering encomiums on it.
“We consider that comment disingenuous, but we acknowledge that it is within his right to prefer not to commend an administration that provided a service that he applauded.
“So our poser for the revered Professor is: how could he pretend to be oblivious of an administration that put in place the exact train service that he was so comfortably seated in and reminisces about his childhood as well as his time abroad?
“We, however, insist that Professor Soyinka’s quip on why it took so long to have what many are exposed to in other countries is the biggest endorsement yet for how President Buhari is changing the country’s infrastructure landscape”.
The group assured Nigerians that President Buhari would continue to confound critics with his single-minded commitment to making the country better than he met it
